Story at a glance
- An alligator from Louisiana was found on a Padre Island beach in Texas.
- Alligators can be found in 120 of Texas’s 254 counties.
- Though they are typically found in freshwater, alligators can travel some distance in saltwater.
A young alligator found on the sandy beaches of Padre Island in Texas had made the trek from the bayous of Louisiana.
Discovered by National Park Service rangers on Monday basking in the sun on Malaquite Beach, the American alligator was identified via its tail notch and tags on its rear feet as having made the trip to Texas all the way from Louisiana, according to the service’s Facebook post.
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Alligators aren’t uncommon in Texas, where they can be found in 120 of the state’s 254 counties.
However, the animal typically keeps to fresh water such as swamps, rivers and lakes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. While they can travel distances in saltwater, alligators do not live in the ocean.
The National Park Service rangers have relocated the alligator to a rehabilitation facility “to recover from its long journey.”
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